Apple to take bite of European internet music market

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New York: US computer maker Apple was yesterday expected to unveil in London the European version of its popular online music service iTunes, invading a market US rival Napster entered last month.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is expected to announce that the iTunes Music Store will immediately be available in Britain, Germany and France, the Financial Times reported, citing an industry source.

But the company, known for its secrecy ahead of major announcements, refused to confirm Mr Jobs' presence in London.

Up to now, iTunes has only been available in North America, where users pay 99 US cents per song downloaded into their Apple or Windows-equipped computer, or in the company's pocket-sized iPod MP3 player.

Mr Jobs added that the California-based company was competing mainly with illegal websites.

"We compete really with piracy," he told the financial daily.

Napster, the once-free file swapping website, has sold 10 million songs since its launch as a pay site last year.

Napster was acquired by the music software firm Roxio in 2002 after a flood of lawsuits from the music industry drove it to bankruptcy court.

The company, with its new name Napster 2.0, started selling in Canada on May 26 and beat Apple to the European market when it began offering a catalogue of more than 500,000 songs in Britain on May 20.

Napster has "no specific plans" to move to other European markets, company spokeswoman Dana Harris said.

Napster on Monday unveiled a partnership with the British cable company NTL.

The cable provider's 1 million broadband Internet customers will be able to access Napster's song list for at least an extra £10 ($A26.50) a month for the service.

Meanwhile, Britain's OD2, or On Demand Distribution, which was co-founded by rock legend Peter Gabriel, on Monday announced the launch of its SonicSelector service in Germany, Britain, France and Italy.